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	The Life And Inevitable Death Of Bloopi

	Every year I fall for one April Fool, usually on April the 2nd because the internet has undermined the transience and therefore the entire freaking point of the day. This year it was this awesome hoax by Braid artist and A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible hero David Hellman. Curse you, David Hellman! Your pictures were so alluring that I skipped the highly suspicious intro paragraph and totally sent the link to Tim before I realised it was a big pile of fat blue lies! Check also out what happened in Guild Wars, if you missed it in my Flickr box down there on the right. Link Comment

	J-man: Bloopi seems incredibly cool. I once had a friend like Bloopi but he tried to eat me. I had to-to... put him down. David Hellman: Awesome, glad ya fell for it! So what were you thinking when you thought it was real? Maybe the opening paragraph should have been less suspicious... Thanks for the link. - David Pentadact: Honestly? I thought "Awesome! In your face, Jason Rohrer!" I know having a puzzle-solving companion would totally undermine Braid - all the best puzzles are the ones I would have given up on if I had the option. But I'd skipped the intro para, so I thought this was a whole new chapter of the game where Bloopi is the defining mechanic, and maybe, like, you can rewind as much as you like, but he's rewind-immune and ages in real-time, so suddenly you don't have all the time in the world and there's an irreversible consequence to taking too long over a puzzle, or rewinding too much. I'd also love it if there was a world where Tim (the Braid hero, not the PC Gamer deputy editor I sent the link to) starts to experience side-effects from time-manipulation, like the guys do in Primer. Nosebleeds, shitty handwriting. PS. Holy shit, David Hellman is here! Pentadact: I also really liked the picture of Bloopi all happy because he's found a key. And the sudden sombreness in his expression in the first ageing pic. J-man: It's actually quite sad... But the artwork is awesome. Man Raised By Puffins: Hehe, the nipple tassels are a nice touch.

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